Description

Job Summary

The Director of Public Affairs and Internal Communications serves as a strategic leader responsible for safeguarding and enhancing Rochester Institute of Technology's reputation. This role focuses on proactive issues management, crisis communications, and high-level internal messaging to ensure transparency, trust, and alignment across the university community.
The director monitors emerging risks, develops rapid-response strategies, and leads communications efforts during crises or reputational challenges. Additionally, the position oversees internal communications that foster engagement and clarity among faculty, staff, and students.
The Director will be responsible for identifying and tracking potential threats to the university, developing and implementing rapid communications efforts to mitigate those threats, and leading crisis communications and response efforts. The director will be responsible for real-time monitoring, messaging, response and analysis of news, issues, emergencies and crisis situations, and will plan proactively and promptly on behalf of the university.
The position directly reports to the Associate Vice President of Communications and will partner with university leadership, including the Office of the President, Vice President of Marketing and Communications, the Office of Legal Affairs, Risk Management, Public Safety, and others. This job requires a senior-level communications practitioner with demonstrated issues management and crisis communications experience. Experience in higher education is a plus.

Job Responsibilities

Key Responsibilities:
Establish and oversee systems and processes to identify and monitor a full range of emerging issues with the potential to negatively impact the university's reputation. Respond appropriately when necessary.

• Identify, assess, monitor, and track campus and community issues with the potential to do reputational harm.
• Develop and implement rapid-response strategies to mitigate risks and "take the temperature down" during sensitive situations.
• Serve as media relations liaison and spokesperson.
• Communications counselor on an Issues Response Team (IRT) with university-wide representation. The team meets regularly to forecast emerging issues and identify potential reputational issues before they become a crisis.
• Serve as the "Public Information Officer" on the RIT Critical Incident Management Team, which follows the FEMA-based National Incident Management System.
• Serve as the lead communicator during crises, coordinating messaging across internal and external audiences.
• Advise senior leadership and collaborate with legal, compliance, and public safety teams on response strategies.
• Prepare and maintain messaging talking points and position statement templates for recurring or hot button issues.
• Regularly conduct vulnerability assessments and develop contingency plans to address the most pressing potential scenarios.
• Lead RIT's crisis communications strategy and execution 24 hours per day that involves multiple stakeholders (i.e. students, faculty, staff, alumni, parents, Trustees, university partners).
• Provide senior leadership counsel during times of crisis, including authoring proactive reports that anticipate potential issues.
• Key liaison to the Division of Government and Communications, as well as Division of Finance and Administration, which includes Facilities Management Services, Human Resources, Information Technology Services, Legal Affairs, Public Safety, and Risk Management.
• Work in close partnership with the communications team, including the Director of Social Media on issues monitoring and response.

Strategic Planning & Reputation Management

• Monitor trends in higher education and public discourse to anticipate emerging issues.
• Maintain and regularly update crisis communication protocols and playbooks.
• Provide training and guidance to university leaders on media relations and crisis response.
• Prepare a daily RIT Leadership Digest for senior management. This report contains relevant news reports, links to documents, and other items specific to RIT and the higher education landscape.

Internal Communications Leadership

• Oversee high-level internal communications involving a variety of constituents.
• Design and execute internal communication plans that align with institutional priorities and values.
• Ensure timely, accurate, and empathetic messaging to faculty, staff, and students during organizational changes or critical events.
• Work regularly with the RIT Service Center, the concierge-like department handling an array of questions from the RIT community.

Required Qualifications

Education/Experience:

• Minimum 10 years of experience with a focus on crisis communications, issues/reputation management, litigation communications, and public affairs.
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience.

Skills:

• Collaborative leadership style with the ability to influence across diverse stakeholder groups.
• Experience developing crisis communications plans, programs, and guidelines.
• Demonstrated ability to think in new, dynamic ways regarding managing reputation and crisis response.
• Ability to communicate information effectively and accurately, verbally, and in writing across multiple channels.
• Track record of successfully managing communications during times of crisis in a global, matrixed organization.
• Experience counseling executives during times of crisis.
• Experience managing public affairs efforts.
• Ability to achieve results in a fast-paced and dynamic environment, where timely response is critical.
• The ideal candidate will have experience engaging with reporters on a regular basis on challenging issues. Experience as a spokesperson.
• Experience and understanding of social media.
• Must be able to balance strategic thinking with tactical execution.
• Ability to positively contribute to a team environment.
• Candidates must be eligible to work in the United States.

Preferred Qualifications

Preferred Attributes:

• Experience in higher education or large, mission-driven organizations.
• Demonstrate emotional intelligence and calm in high pressure situations.
• Ability to synthesize large amounts of data and distill key points clearly, succinctly, and quickly

How To Apply

In order to be considered for this position, you must apply for it at: http://careers.rit.edu/staff. Click the link for search openings and in the keyword search field, enter the title of the position or the BR number.

Additional Details

In compliance with NYS's Pay Transparency Act, the salary range for this position is listed above. Rochester Institute of Technology considers factors such as (but not limited to) scope and responsibilities of the position, candidate's work experience, education/training, key skills, internal peer equity, as well as, market and organizational considerations when extending an offer. The hiring process for this position may require a criminal background check and/or motor vehicle records check. Any verbal or written offer made is contingent on satisfactory results, as determined by Human Resources. RIT provides equal opportunity to all qualified individuals and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, creed, age, marital status, sex, gender, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, veteran status or disability in its hiring, admissions, educational programs and activities. RIT provides reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities under the Rehabilitation Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the New York Human Rights Law, or similar applicable law. If you need reasonable accommodation for any part of the application and hiring process, please contact the Human Resources office at 585-475-2424 or email your request to hr@rit.edu. Determinations on requests for reasonable accommodation will be made on a case-by-case basis.